Michelangelo
was one of the most inspired
creators in the history of art
and, with Leonardo da Vinci, the
most potent force in the Italian
High Renaissance. As a sculptor,
architect, painter, and poet, he
exerted a tremendous influence on
his contemporaries and on
subsequent Western art in
general.

A
Florentinealthough born
March 6, 1475, in the small
village of Caprese near
ArezzoMichelangelo
continued to have a deep
attachment to his city, its art,
and its culture throughout his
long life. He spent the greater
part of his adulthood in Rome,
employed by the popes;
characteristically, however, he
left instructions that he be
buried in Florence, and his body
was placed there in a fine
monument in the church of Santa
Croce.